Posted on 09/26/2003 11:58:03 AM PDT by riri
Many Arizona voters are disgruntled with President Bush's handling of the economy and funding for the Iraq war and wouldn't re-elect him right now, according to a poll released Thursday by Arizona State University. Only 34 percent questioned during a weekend telephone survey would vote to give Bush a second term, according to the poll results. Forty-four percent said they would prefer someone else and 22 percent said they were undecided.
Bush's standing in Arizona has national implications |because |while |the president won the state in 2000, voters narrowly picked a Democratic governor last year.
"People have kind of looked at Arizona as a bellwether in a negative way," said Bruce Merrill, who conducted the ASU poll. "If Bush is in trouble in Arizona, he must be in trouble around the country."
Only 18 percent of Republicans said they would vote for someone else. But 72 percent of Democrats and 49 percent of independents said they didn't want Bush to have a second term.
Questions about specific issues revealed that 55 percent of those surveyed disapproved of Bush's handling of the economy and 52 percent didn't like the president's request to spend another $87 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan. But 64 percent approved of how Bush is addressing potential terrorist threats in the United States.
Republican Party officials said a decline in Bush's support was expected after reaching historic highs in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"The president enjoys higher numbers than both (Ronald) Reagan and (Bill) Clinton at similar points in their presidencies," said Robert Fannin, chairman of the Arizona Republican Party. "It's not like the sky is falling. It's just a normal thing that happens and has happened in the last 25 years."
But Merrill said nearly one of every five Republicans looking for someone else is a bad sign for the president.
"It appears to me that the only thing that is propping him up at this point is the war on terrorism," Merrill said. "I think you will see him spin that with everything he does, trying to justify the war in Iraq and probably jobs and everything else, based on 9/11. It's in his political interest to do so."
Merrill and Democratic leaders said the situation is eerily similar to Bush's father in 1992, who lost his re-election bid after also waging a successful military campaign against Iraq's Saddam Hussein. Unlike the elder Bush, the president must deal with charges that he misled the world on the justification for war.
"The kind of problems that President Bush brought on himself aren't going to be solved overnight," said Jim Pederson, chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party.
Pederson spoke by phone Thursday from New York City, where he watched a debate between the 10 Democratic presidential candidates. Several polls this week show Bush's support dropping across the country, he said.
"It's just a reflection of the tremendous frustration that American people feel with this president," Pederson said. "The economy is in a wreck right now. Unemployment is going through the roof. The tax cut was ill-conceived."
Fannin pointed out the ASU poll didn't match Bush with any of the Democrat contenders, so those surveyed weren't asked to compare the president with a specific alternative.
Tom Liddy, chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Committee, said the only troubling question deals with the economy, which was a key reason for the 1992 defeat of Bush's father. There is evidence the economy is expanding again after more than two years of stagnation, he said.
"The president is going to have to rally the American people to agree with him on the economy," Liddy said. "If we get growth in the gross domestic product of 3.5 percent to 4 percent, that would turn around pretty quickly."
Liddy also said Arizona voters were more supportive in the survey of spending the $87 billion than voters nationwide as reflected in other polls.
The Arizona poll was sponsored by ASU's KAET-TV (Channel 8) and Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The survey included 390 registered voters with party identifications similar to statewide registration numbers. The margin of error was 5 percentage points.
Contact Le Templar by email, or phone (602) 542-5813
This poll is pure BS. I don't trust any survey that polls less than 1,000 (1,200 is better), and a margin of error grater than 2.5%
I live in Arizona. We continue to construct homes for all the conservatives who are fleeing that mess called "California." The only reason why we have a Democrat Governor (Butch Napolitano) is because "its" Republican challenger was (gasp!) a Mormon.
Your post would have been much more effective had you placed it prior to my voter registration stats. You know, the ones that show the Dem registration declining at a faster pace than the GOP's. :-)
Don't you know you're not supposed to complain? W is the best thing that ever happend to the Republican party! Now shut up, pay the bills, and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
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